


He Always Comes Back

by ThatOddNerd



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Drama, F/M, Humor, Reunions, Romance, Spoilerish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-30
Updated: 2014-07-30
Packaged: 2018-02-11 01:20:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2047773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatOddNerd/pseuds/ThatOddNerd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, bare with me here guys. My mind's been pondering this little plot-bunny for awhile now ever since I saw some photos from Age of Ultron. I got this idea as to where Clint's been and how he'll be coming into the story in the new movie. I doubt this will be how it goes but I wanted to write it down.</p>
<p>Clint told her once he'd always come back to her. No matter how long he was gone, how dangerous the mission, he said he'd come back to her somehow. She hadn't seen him in almost a year now, and as her world fell around her, she couldn't help but wonder if he finally had the sense to break his promise. She didn't want to admit to herself that that was an option she did not like at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	He Always Comes Back

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This got away from me. Just a bit. But I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out. Some of it will seem weird but this is a plot bunny that wouldn't leave me alone, so I decided to write it. 
> 
> This isn't entirely spoilerish, but I guess it can be considered somewhat spoilerish. I got the idea, like I said, from some photos, BTS and official release, from Age of Ultron, as well as a couple of movie details I read about.

* * *

 

The year 2015 had just begun and Natasha wasn't entirely sure now how the rest of her life was going to play out. For the longest time, while she was still a spy for Russia, when she was still loyal to them, she thought she'd one day either be killed herself by a lucky shot, or disappear one day to a cabin hidden far far away in the mountains to live out her life. After she joined S.H.I.E.L.D. her plans had changed a bit. Now she envisioned a couple of new plans. Work for the agency until she was old or killed, whichever came first. Or, possibly, although she would never ever tell anyone, not even him, because she would never hear the end of it and it wasn't something she was ready to admit, settle down one day. Leave S.H.I.E.L.D. and get married, live a quiet life, something she never before thought could happen. Not after all she'd experienced in Russia, after the horrors she went through in training and what they did to her in the Red Room. When she thought of that possible settle down scenario, she would always seem to imagine ...him...being there with her, the two of them getting married and settling down in a quiet neighborhood where they could finally live a somewhat normal life, a happy one like they both deserved. The wedding wouldn't be big. Register office. Neither of them had family. Hers had been killed when she was taken and Clint had told her about how his parents had been killed in a car accident and his brother...it was complicated. They hadn't really talked about this subject matter, possibly leaving S.H.I.E.L.D. and getting married, living a normal life. But Natasha knew that after the Battle of New York and all that happened with Loki, Clint's guilt over the matter was strong, and his want for a normal life, even stronger. ("I'm tired Nat. Tired and aching, and ready for something different. Something normal. I didn't get that as a kid. Not after my parent's death. Not at the orphanage or at Carson's or Tiboldt's. Coney island was relatively normal but I left so quickly...and then Coulson picked me up for S.H.I.E.L.D. and I never looked back. I want to look back now Nat." he had whispered this confession one night, the two of them simply lying there in bed, no sex or even foreplay, just lying there. Natasha hadn't felt that heartbroken over this man since he'd been possessed.)

But of course, none of that could happen if Clint _wasn't fucking there_. He had disappeared one morning without a word, only leaving a small purple silk box on her nightstand in the flat they'd rented out in London. She opened the box and inside there was a necklace, gold with a small arrow. She'd been pissed. Beyond pissed. They would have plenty of missions where one of them would leave without physically saying goodbye, but they'd always left a note or a message on their cellphones. She called everyone she could think of. Fury, Hill, anyone remotely related to missions and who went where and got nothing. When she confronted Fury a couple of days later at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, literally just off the plane she'd taken, he looked at her and said "It's classified." and Natasha had never wanted to deck a person so hard they passed out so much before. When she pointed out that Clint was her partner, her best friend, someone she cared about, and as Clint's partner especially, as one half of Strike Team Delta, she had a right to know. For a second it looked like Fury was going to relent and tell her, but then his face became passive and he simply said "I'm sorry Romanoff, it's classified. Beyond my control.".

She decked him.

That had been a year ago, a full fucking year and she had heard _nothing_.  She didn't want to admit to anyone she was worried, although she saw the looks people gave her when she would walk around headquarters or even Stark's tower (Renamed The Avengers Tower because Stark had a definite flare for the dramatic.). Working helped. She went on more and more missions, with Steve and alone. When Hill once noted that Natasha kept taking more and more dangerous missions, she simply glared at the brunette and walked away. After the whole incident with the Winter Soldier, the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the rise of Hydra, she became too busy to remember she was worried about Clint. Then came the time when she was (sort of) on the run. She'd travelled for awhile, unconsciously looking for him, before returning to New York and taking up residence in the Tower.  She stayed and did odd jobs thrown at her from Fury and Hill in cryptic messages. Hill working for Stark now helped with this, and she'd grown a rather close friendship with a woman who initially irked her. She saw Bruce on a regular basis, as he'd moved into the Tower a few months before her, as had Steve. Thor visited occasionally, often bringing Jane with him. He told them he'd be here on Earth much more now, after the battle in London with what Tony jokingly called "The Ghost Elves". The New York P.D. called them in quite a lot as well, not that they'd minded. Besides the incident in London, and then the whole thing with the Winter Soldier and Hydra, things hadn't been too big on the alien side. At least not for them. 

Which is how they ended up where they were now. In the middle of Time's Square, filled with enemies of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra and people they'd recruited, as well as the dangerous and crazy machine Tony (Of fucking course.) had made. They'd already been fighting for hours, the machine having escaped ("Shall I chase the mad man of steel?" Thor had asked, right before he got hit in the head with something hurled at them by an enemy agent.), and left the humans (and the demi-god and super soldier and...Bruce) to kill each other. It had seemed for awhile that things were calming down, until all of a sudden a new wave of bullets, beams , and shrapnel loaded bombs entered the area. For a small second, both sides became still, confused by what was going on. Neither of them having introduced these new additions. Then suddenly, Nat saw it. The jet that she could swear was Hydra, but when it didn't start shooting at them, she wondered... 

In the frenzy, the jet landed after one of the lasers hit a portion of the belly of the machine, and the door didn't just open, it inverted and then was no more, gone up in a swirl of what looked like reddish purple smoke. She ran closer to the jet, getting ready to fight who or whatever came out, although she had a feeling that considering it was being hunted by the new wave of bad guys, they were probably friendly. Maybe. In a flash, she felt something swish by her and heard a crash behind her, looking to see a young man with silver hair panting and picking stones from the wall he'd crashed into, off of his self. Then...

"Shit, fuck, shit, fuck, shit, fuck, fuck fuck fuck." There he was. Alive and relatively well, running from the jet with a young red haired woman following him, looking equally dismayed by this turn of events. " Fucking assholes with their fucking laser gunners and their fucking..."

"Mr. Barton, as much as I agree with you, now's not the time!" the young woman shouted. There was a crash, then a boom, and everyone turned to see a pillar flying through the air towards them. Natasha moved to run, before, suddenly, the pillar stopped, made a creaking noise, and then... 

It was gone. In the same poof of what looked like smoke. 

"Where's the tower?" the young silver haired man asked, suddenly right next to the other two. 

"It's...ah...fuck." Clint stopped and looked around at the buildings, trying to figure out where he was before his eyes landed on Natasha, staring at all three of them, her face almost as red as her hair. "Well then, if I live through this, that woman over there is going to murder me. But that is a story for another time." The young woman and young man turned to look at her, and Natasha could swear both of them tensed. 

"Is she...?" the man began.

"Should I get rid of her?" the woman asked Clint, almost protectively. Like a body guard or a friend.

"No! No. God no. That's...that's _her_." The way he said 'her' apparently made everything clear for the two and she could swear the young man was smirking now.

"Well." the young woman began " That is good to know. It looks like we dropped in in the middle of a party. Why don't we join them? Pietro, get me up on that building where I can see everything better. Let's end this thing. I want to sleep and bathe and eat something that isn't that awful stuff they fed us at the facility." 

"Wanda are you sure that's..." Clint began.

"Yes. I'm fine. Pietro's fine. We'll help your friends deal with this and then we are going to sleep for three days after washing up and eating everything in that tower you keep telling us about." After a look of pure concern passed over Clint's face, Wanda sighed and put her arm on his shoulder. "We're fine Clint. Really. Thank you for getting us out of there. We are very grateful and we want to show that. Let us help your friends." Clint nodded and she smiled, before suddenly, she was high on a building, and the sounds of screaming and even more chaos could be heard. In the little alcove that was afforded to them, for Clint had landed the jet in the courtyard of what looked like an old government building, the two remaining people there were staring at each other. Natasha couldn't help but glance at the Hydra symbol on the side of the downed jet, then back to Clint, her eyes questioning. 

"Infiltrating a Nazi organization to get two of their prisoners out is a real bitch." Clint said, looking at the jet himself before working a few kinks out of his neck and back. Natasha was feeling a myriad of emotions at the moment. Anger, sadness, regret, happiness, relief, hurt, the want to punch or even kill the man standing before her mixed with the want to throw her arms around him and never let go. All of it. Although she was admittedly leaning towards punching him a the moment. "I know." It had been silent between them for a full minute, accompanied by the soundtrack of battle, as so many of their serious conversations in the past had been, before it was broken. 

"A year Clint."

"I know."

"An entire fucking year."

"I know." 

"No word, just a necklace on my night stand."

"I know." 

"You couldn't have told me somehow? Left a note? Left a note in Russian, or Spanish, or French, or Farsi, or Arabic, or any other fucking language you and I both know, which is close to two hundred. Fuck, I would have even taken a note in _Klingon_ Clint." she was now right in front of him, less than a foot away, shaking with anger. 

"I..."

"No! No I don't think you do know!" Natasha snapped, grabbing a hold of both his arms so he couldn't move. "You don't know because you weren't here! Do you even know what's been happening? The incident in London? What happened here? The fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the rise of Hydra? Fucking Hydra Clint! They've been there the entire time! S.H.I.E.L.D. was a fucking cover! A cover and no one knew! How the fuck do I even know you aren't Hydra now hm? How do I know that this whole thing isn't them trying to end this battle by sending ...those kids and you here?" The look he gave her made her roll her eyes. "Okay, fine , I'll give you that. But do you know what we've been going through? What..." What I've been going through, is what she wanted to say but didn't. She didn't need to. "Clint, I was scared." she whispered. "I was scared for you. I thought... I'd begun to think you were dead. Dead somewhere where you'd never be found and I'd never know, never get closure." She would not cry. She would not cry. Not right now, that wasn't fair. "I thought you and I were possibly going to...but then you left and..." This was a side of Natasha no one, absolutely no one else got to see but Clint, and even with him she rarely ever allowed herself such an emotional moment. 

"Nat, I know. I know and I'm sorry, but there was nothing I could do. I had my orders and I needed to follow them. To protect them, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, the mission, and to protect you." She looked up at him, right in the eyes through her tears (Damn them!) and saw the pain and regret in them "I ... Fury came to me with this a long time ago, and we'd been gathering intel. He told me about some of his suspicions regarding certain higher ranking people in the organization and that there was a chance these ...twins were being held at this place in the mountains in Poland. He told me I'd have to infiltrate the facility in order to get even remotely close to the chance of getting them out. You saw how powerful they were. What they can do. Could you imagine what would happen if Hydra had managed to brainwash them? The chances of this working were admittedly really slim. I kind of think in a way it was a sort of execution as well. If I succeeded, great. We got them out and on our side. If not, I'd be killed by some Hydra agent or possibly even one of the twins if I couldn't convince them I was there to help. Wanda was having trouble controlling her powers for awhile, you never know..." he let the sentence trail off, and suddenly he couldn't look at her anymore. He looked everywhere but at her. He looked at the chaos, or rather towards it, he looked at the rooftop where he could still see Wanda taking out people from a distance, he saw random object seem to fly of their own accord and take down bad guys, knowing Pietro was behind that. His life had been turned upside down in the last year, and he had to admit, the only people he seemed to know anymore were the twins he'd helped escape from an ultra high security Hydra base in fucking _Poland_ of all places. 

"Why would S.H.I.E.L.D. want you executed?" Natasha asked, knowing what his answer would be but not wanting to say as much.

"Come on Nat, you know why."

"That wasn't..."

"My fault. I know. Except it was. Loki may have been controlling me but I'm still the one who held back the arrows and released."

"Will you ever forgive yourself for all that?" Natasha felt her heart breaking all over again. She'd thought that maybe he was over what had happened, but rationally, she supposed, she knew he wasn't. You don't just get over being possessed and used for a sick plot to take over the world. Especially when that involved being a killing machine. 

"You tell me Nat." she looked at him, her eyes mournful and tired. He looked tired to. But it wasn't just fatigue, it was the bone tired, need to sleep for weeks, I'm never going to be okay again, tired. And she hated that. 

"Right now we need to help with the frenzy. But later on, after you have your little friends settled at Stark's tower, you and I are going to talk more and you are going to sleep, and we are going to work things out, alright?" It was more of a command than a question, and both  of them knew as much. Clint nodded, and Natasha nodded right back. Together they turned and walked towards the chaos. (After Clint retrieved his bow and arrows from the jet of course, and Natasha teased him about the compact, earning a much missed eyeroll from her partner.) 

Strike Team Delta was together once more. 

 


End file.
